Information Technology (IT) management may require performing remote management operations of remote systems to perform inventory, monitoring, control, and/or to determine whether remote systems are up-to-date. For example, management devices and/or consoles may perform such operations as discovering and/or navigating management resources in a network, manipulating and/or administrating management resources, requesting and/or controlling subscribing and/or unsubscribing operations, and executing specific management methods and/or procedures. Management devices and/or consoles may communicate with devices in a network to ensure availability of remote systems, to monitor and/or control remote systems, to validate that systems may be up-to-date, and/or to perform any security patch updates that may be necessary.
With the increasing popularity of electronics such as desktop computers, laptop computers, and handheld devices such as smart phones and PDA's, communication networks, and in particular Ethernet networks, are becoming an increasingly popular means of exchanging data of various types and sizes for a variety of applications. In this regard, Ethernet networks are increasingly being utilized to carry, for example, voice, data, and multimedia. Accordingly more and more devices are being equipped to interface with Ethernet networks.
As the number of devices connected to data networks increases and higher data rates are required, there is a growing need for new transmission technologies which enable higher data rates. Increased data rates may often result in significant increases in power consumption. In this regard, as an increasing number of portable and/or handheld devices are enabled for Ethernet communications, battery life may be a concern when communicating over Ethernet networks. As networks become increasingly large and complex, network management also becomes increasingly complex. Furthermore, larger, faster, and more complex networks become increasingly costly in terms of power consumption.
Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) is an emerging feature for Ethernet devices that is being defined by the IEEE 802.3az task force. The basic goal of EEE is for Ethernet network links to enter power saving mode in instances when the Ethernet link is not being utilized.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.